New-Year Sprint Car Racing Resolutions

From Nebraska: New-Year Sprint Car Racing Resolutions


The “Centrist Reform Program”: An Agenda for the 21st Century

"The basic needs of all of our citizens are provided for -- all of the people, all of the time...." --Abraham Lincoln.


Do You Love What You Do?

From Chicago: Do You Love What You Do? Some thoughts on my professional path


The “Right to Life”: It’s Much More Than You Think

The “right to life” is a venerable moral and legal principle that is regularly invoked in debates about abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, and more.   The philosopher John Locke in his Two Treatises of Government (1690) was the first “modern” theorist to assert the idea of self-evident human rights, including “life, liberty and estate” [i.e., property], while the first public/political assertion of a right to life was in the American Declaration of Independence (1776).


Happy Hydrating!

It started with the feeling of being light headed and dizzy then progressed to leg cramps. Later that night while I slept, the leg cramps became unbearable, shooting me out of bed. Thinking back, I did remember earlier in the day, stopping to ask myself, why had I gone into the walk-in, and what was I looking for?


Art and Passion in Little Italy

Every September, the exalted statue of San Gennaro is still carried through Mulberry Street during a parade and week-long festival of Italian grandeur, gastronomic delight also known as gluttony, and kitsch. Then, not at all connected to the church of San Gennaro, on the wall of an adjacent building, the mural of Tristan Eaton beams extraordinary color that is neither pious or gold, but passionate enough, and designed from spray paint. 


Lies, Damned Lies… and Political Lies

The famed British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is reputed to have said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." His wry comment (later quoted by Mark Twain) was intended to call attention to how easily we can be misled by spurious precision.  Perhaps this is what inspired Darrell Huff’s classic small book, How to Lie with Statistics.


Ayn Rand Versus Plato

Plato’s great dialogue, the Republic, written more than 2000 years ago, remains one of the most influential works about social justice ever written.  The twentieth century novelist and social philosopher Ayn Rand, perhaps the most influential conservative/ libertarian voice of the present day, had a radically different vision.  So, it might be useful to do a brief comparison between Plato and Ayn Rand.